Morgan Stanley dealmaker Heaton on wealth team

NEW YORK Morgan Stanley (MS.N) said on Tuesday that David Heaton, a long-time banker and specialist in asset management deals, was moved to its wealth management business, in a new role aimed at generating more leads for the firm's multitude of financial advisers.

In moving to the role as senior relationship manager in April, Heaton joined his twin, Eric Heaton, at Morgan Stanley's wealth business, as the brothers were reunited under the unit's head, Greg Fleming. All three executives started their careers at Merrill Lynch, the brokerage now owned by Bank of America Corp (BAC.N).

Heaton's move came as Fleming was trying to generate more profit from the firm's more than 16,000 brokers by looking for ways to grow revenue after spending his first two years there focusing on cutting costs.

Fleming told the Reuters Global Wealth Management Summit on Tuesday that the firm also had a "strategic lead management" group that is responsible for handling client referrals between various parts of Morgan Stanley. The group reports to both Fleming and Colm Kelleher, the president of Institutional Securities.

For example, Fleming said, if a wealth management business client was the chief executive of a private company that wanted to go public, this group would help introduce the party to Morgan Stanley's investment bankers.

Fleming said that David Heaton would use his contacts with asset management firms and hedge funds to help identify products that Morgan Stanley's brokers may want to sell to clients.

Heaton, who first joined Morgan Stanley in 2010 from Deutsche Bank, is based in Purchase, New York, headquarters of the company's wealth management business.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, formed as part of the merger of the firm's wealth business and Citigroup's (C.N) Smith Barney in 2009, is the largest U.S. brokerage. Morgan Stanley already has control of the venture and plans to eventually buy out Citigroup's stake.

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